Business Archives - Page 3 of 4 - Simply Social Media Solutions

Artcle by: Hubspot
Calls-to-action (CTAs) are one of the most critical inbound marketing tools. Whether they take the form of anchor text links, images, or buttons, CTAs are what motivate and direct your visitors to take a desired action, usually on Read more

I'm a big believer that you need to create strategies for your online and offline marketing integration in order to establish a unified message about your brand and capture audiences from every media source. It's not enough anymore to Read more

Once again Twitter has made some pretty substantial updates and one of them includes the new "look" to your profile, much like that of the Facebook Timeline.
Activating it is pretty simple and I'm going to show you how to Read more

I’ve been saying for years that businesses have to start paying attention to how consumers are now making their purchase decisions. With technology always so close at hand, we are seeing people in store isles searching out reviews on products before they buy, gathering information about the products right on the spot, or searching online for a much needed product or service. It’s time now for businesses to take social media and online search seriously by applying new strategies to their marketing portfolios.

Google has just released their own ebook entitled, “ZMOT: Winning the Zero Moment of Truth” by Jim Lecinski, Google’s Managing Director of US Sales & Service and Chief ZMOT Evangelist, which focuses on the way consumers have changed and evolved.

As I promised yesterday, I want to share an article posted on twitter by @mostash by @jasonfalls that explores how conversational marketing equates to real world socializing. Increasingly companies are finding that the “pushy, I gotta meet a quote” sales tactics no long work, instead it’s become far more effective to build relationships and trust over time.

Exploring Conversational Marketing

How do you know when, in the midst of conversation, to market? Is it never? Is it only when your conversational partner asks? How about at any reasonable opening to do so? Or is there a medium in between one more more of those?

From The Cluetrain Manifesto‘s declaration that “Markets are conversations,” we’ve all tried, and some have struggled, to figure out what that means, how we as marketers can capitalize on it and tactically, when in conversation can we market? Or more appropriately for many, when in conversation can we sell?

Social Media Has Become Mainstream

Social Media has become mainstream and it’s not going away anytime soon, so now is the time to embrace it. Many small businesses still don’t understand the full potential behind social media which can now be called “word of mouth on steroids”.

If your company is new or just starting to consider creating a social media presence, then you probably have a few questions and even concerns about getting started. I’ve put together a few videos that should help. These videos will walk you through everything from the statistics of social media to a few successful case studies.

Once you’ve finished this article, it should be quite clear to you exactly why your company should be utilizing social media in some way to propel your business and sales.

Small businesses are so busy “managing” that they don’t have time to spend focusing on new trends that could have a huge impact on their business. I wanted to share this short article by Lee Odden of TopRank hoping to catch the attention of busy business owners.

“Qualified”, “showing intent to buy”, “high conversion rate” and many other phrases are used to describe search engine marketing. As a $16 billion industry, Search Marketing including SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC ads (pay per click) represent a substantial opportunity for small businesses to connect with customers at the moment they are looking for products and services to buy.

Even though Search Marketing presents an attractive opportunity to grow online sales, many businesses are too busy running their companies to stay on top of future trends. To that end, here are three search marketing trends worth paying attention to:

1. Online & Offline Marketing Integration - Forrester Research estimates $917 billion worth of retail sales in 2009 were “Web-influenced” in contrast to $155 billion of consumer goods sold online in the same year. Small businesses must pay attention to customer search online influencing offline purchases as well as the influence of the in-store experience on searching and purchasing online.

2. Mobile Device and Local Search – Companies must recognize consumer trends towards mobile search with the proliferation of smart phones. The web experience has definitively extended beyond the personal computer to mobile devices such as iPhones, Blackberries and iPads. Marketers must understand their customers’ use of mobile search and what the marketing opportunities are.

Companies that serve customers in specific regions or with geographically specific needs must be present in local search results, map results and specific geo-location queries. Segmenting potential customers through geo targeting with paid search advertisements will help focus the right ads on the right customers.

3. Social Media Advertising – Savvy small business marketers are increasingly realizing that the opportunity to reach customers extends beyond traditional paid search into the booming social media space. Having surpassed Google as the most visited website for the week ending March 13, 2010 and with over 400 million registered users, Facebook offers a significant audience that shouldn’t be ignored. Social networks like Facebook can provide online marketers hyper-targeted advertising opportunities that can tap into new customer segments and serve as a complement to other paid search programs.

Whether it’s incorporating online and offline influences with search marketing, diversifying PPC advertising networks, leveraging local and mobile search marketing or extending advertising programs to include social media, small business marketers that capitalize on these trends will gain a competitive advantage. Of course, if they hire an online marketing agency like TopRank Marketing, that advantage may come even faster.